UCLA

This dissertation is based on the reflections of three prominent Iranian ustādān (master musicians; plural of ustād)—Lotfī, Jankouk and Sālem—on what defines beauty in mūsīqī-e sonnatī (traditional music). The judgment of beauty incorporates an array of ethical queries conveyed through a language that is heavily entangled with Islamic revelations, mystical beliefs and traditional values. The three ustādān’s perceptions of beauty are articulated through their understandings of how akhlāq (ethics, morals or manners) shapes the ideals of mūsīqī-e sonnatī. Akhlāq defines a set of principles that form the attitudes and actions relevant to the process of music-making. This dissertation examines the judgment of beauty and akhlāq in relation to mūsīqī-e sonnatī based on an examination of language, logic, politics and metaphysics. For the three ustādān, beauty is mainly reflected upon thought a metaphysical and spiritual perspective, that they have learned through readings of Iranian poetry and literature.

Beauty and ethical ideals shape how the three ustādān make use of the radīf (Iranian musical repertoire) as the main source of akhlāq in their music classes, and the ways in which their role has now extends to the public sphere to advance the position of mūsīqī-e sonnatī. In the past four decades Iranians have witnessed the “Islamization” of the political, cultural and social norms. More recently, Iran has seen the disengagement of their youth from the traditional values. This detachment among the youth highlights a breakdown of conventional akhlāq principles, creating an ambiguity of the normative social and cultural practices in Iran. The youth’s nonconformism steps beyond socio-normative principles and Islamic values to create its own ethos. The three ustādān are faced with the unravelling of the norms, as they are confronted with a desire to adjust to the music tastes of younger Iranians. As the ethical values are being undone, newly-formed ideas about the judgment of beauty are being demarcated. Based on the current political, religious and social undertakings in Iran, this dissertation examines the correlation of ethics and beauty in mūsīqī-e sonnatī.

This dissertation contributes to the fields of ethnomusicology, anthropology and Middle Eastern studies by a) serving as an in-depth ethnography exploring the relationship between music-making, judgment of beauty, and akhlāq from the perspective of the three ustādān, Shī’a authorities and Islamic scholars; b) mapping out akhlāq as a matrix incorporating language, logic, politics, Islamic values, and music’s affective power over individual sensibility and emotion; and c) exploring the tension, derived from individual musical experiences, between religious and cultural obligation and personal desire. This dissertation also explores urgent questions shared among the wider Iranian public and Western academics: a) What is it in the act of listening to or participating in music that could make it good or evil (bad)? and b) To what degree are beauty and ethics compatible, considering the intensity with which Iran is changing?